Haengbok

I just saw this in Toronto and loved it. I saw 12 films and this was in the top two (my other favorite in Toronto was Mongol). This was a beautiful,realistic story that was well acted. I liked the fact that it was not predictable and the story was very moving. All of the characters were very believable and there were no false notes. I do not know what kind of release this will get, but hopefully some art house theaters will show it in the US. If you have the opportunity, it is worth checking out. There is some humor in the story, but for the most part, this is a serious drama about two people battling different illnesses. This is one of those films that will stay with me and I will think about for days.

Films about the gravely ill tend not to contain many surprises. And when they are not terribly sentimental, trying to wring every possible tear out of the audience, they are far too joyous and upbeat—two equally dishonest and exploitative strategies. I dare say that Happiness (Hængbok) not only espouses milder variations of such emotions but also manages to conflate them in surprising ways. It certainly helps to have someone like Hur Jin-ho at the helm, a director known for quiet, tasteful melodramas such as Christmas in August (1998) and April Snow (2005). Similar to those two films, the overarching plot of Happiness is fairly ordinary—after being diagnosed with Cirrhosis, a hard-living, hard-drinking Seoulite retreats to a sanatorium in the countryside, where he meets a gentle, mild-mannered young woman, a resident patient, who is suffering from a severe respiratory disease, and, as you may have already guessed, the two fall in love—but, once again, Hur's treatment of the material, despite not straying too far from convention, renders it truthful and affecting. He possesses an innate sense of rhythm, a knack for shaping dramatic situations, a sensitivity for unusual relationships. He also has a keen eye for composition and color. And he knows how to draw good, understated performances from extremely popular stars, as he has done here with Hwang Jung-min and Lim Soo-jung. Hur, who, as usual, also co-wrote the film, has imbued his characters with greater complexity this time around, which, in turn, has only added more depth and texture to the narrative.

Happiness, director Hur Jin Ho's fourth feature find the director returning back to his melodramatic roots, exploring characters suffering from chronic and/or terminal illness. What's so fascinating about Hur is his ability to draw you into his carefully studied characters and avoid the pitfalls of melodrama by deft restraint.

In this case, we begin with the hard-partying fast-life Youngsu, whose heavy drinking alcoholism put his bar in bankruptcy and his liver in cirrhosis. Having lost almost everything to his lifestyle, he departs for a hospice-like community in the countryside to see if he can at least save his life. The battle is hard, but he meets the attractive and shy Eun-hee who immediately takes to his charm. Eunhee herself suffers from a lung-disease, but is a good-hearted girl. Eventually, they come together, but as Eunhee helps Young-su recover from his cirrhosis, he meets some old friends that remind him of his previous wild lifestyle and invite him to return. And with a title like Happiness, you know this can't end well.

Hur again draws some impressive performances from his players, provides some amazing photography and really shows his amazing capacity for drawing believable relationships, both in infancy and demise. Furthermore, the subtlety by which he draws the temptations of Young-su's vices are quite impressive. The presence of a mobile phone, a gift from his ex-girlfriend, how he takes up his old vices by the invitation of a farmer and how he is tempted at first to leave from his regimented healthy lifestyle by purchasing "medicinal liquor" all point to the life that he can't leave behind no matter how hard he wishes he could.

This is not an obvious film. It provides a study of addiction, mortality as well as, yes, happiness, but leaves a lot of the interpretation up to the viewer. But this masterful look at two characters, despite the melodramatic backdrop and the ass of a protagonist, is so well drawn that you still can't help but find pathos there. While some viewers might be tempted to label Lim Soo Jung's Eunhee (again playing a possibly terminally ill young woman after her turn in ...ing) a cardboard "pure" character, like I did at first, upon further thought it's possible to see her faults as well and so, I continue to be impressed by director Hur's projects. Gorgeous music, photography, acting, direction. Recommended, except for those that don't like those stories that could be entitled Happiness. 9/10.